How fast is a quick mini?

[kirsty5150]

So, does anyone know of such a place near N'hamton/banbury way? There must be some, but I wouldn't know where to start looking.

[selbymsport]

Try Northampton Motorsport 01604 766624. We use them to run up our Mini 7 race cars and the figures they give us (calculated flywheel from a coast down after the power run)are very close to our own engine dyno figures.

[guru_1071]

fastcarl said:

i have neither,lol

thats 'cos you use 'when the flag drops, the bull$hit stops' eh carl?

[jellison]

This is reasonably fast and would go alot faster with cam and 1380 piston set.

The carbs alone cost a fortune!

www.pistonheads.com/sales/127829.htm

[jacobyte]

Rolling roads are only good for comparisons when testing jetting, etc. If you want ot know the actual power, you need it on a properly calibrated bench engine dynamometer.

I had a 490Kg 1963 van, with Brian Slark head (39 inlet and 31 exhaust), hi-lifts, offset ports, Aldon, Lumenition, 45 Weber, etc, and Orange diaphragm to get the power to the grearbox. I had it rolling road tuned, but was never interested in the actual number of BHP, as it really didn't matter. It was as quick as a TVR Griffith up to about 80mph - proven many times.

On a 1275GT box and 3.44 diff it once just kept on accelerating all the way over 8500rpm in 4th and went bang. It was on 13" wheels, but I had no idea how fast it was going.

Them were the days

[love machine]

according to this

www.csgnetwork.com/rearendgearcalc.html

Assuming your tyres are 20.5" dia, that makes 150mph

My tyres (10" ) are 19.25" (about) 13's are bigger so here's your low end estimate... 141.5mph

That is ing seriously fast for a mini I've raced a Caterham (on a private track) at 105, 115. according to him as my speedo doesn't work. After about 80, it all just gets a lot louder

Edited by love machine on Thursday 25th January 19:29

[jellison]

Slark did my second (copy) TR4 super head. The genius Bill Quine did the original.

[jacobyte]

love machine said:

according to this

www.csgnetwork.com/rearendgearcalc.html

Assuming your tyres are 20.5" dia, that makes 150mph

My tyres (10" ) are 19.25" (about) 13's are bigger so here's your low end estimate... 141.5mph

That is ing seriously fast for a mini I've raced a Caterham (on a private track) at 105, 115. according to him as my speedo doesn't work. After about 80, it all just gets a lot louder

150??? Yikes, that does sound unlikely!

Then again, I have heard that the Van, due to its small frontal area and longer-than-normal-mini tapered body, was the most aerodynamically-efficient shape around. It would always keep on accelerating in 4th without running out of puff (no rev limiter).

Therefore, with considerably more than 100bhp to push it along, 150mph is almost believable. But I'd always guessed it was 125-130-ish . Perhaps my tyres weren't fully inflated.. or something!?

When it went bang, the large hole in the block was caused by the crank snapping. In two places.

[fastcarl]

as a rough guess ,i'd say you will need close to 250 hp to get a standard shaped mini anywhere near 150 mph.OH and a long road.


carl

[love machine]

That bloke with the red pickup got his to about 170. Had been modified a bit though. Used to see that in plimuff, thought it was a joke

[fastcarl]

A claimed 170 maybe, reality and bullshit are a world apart,

wheras i have travelled at 125mph and have the timing ticket to prove it,lol.

carl

[eccles]

125mph is suprisingly easy is you have a rather more aerodynamic piece of pointy plastic for bodywork, and a tall diff.

[jellison]

I found removing the 4 spots and really trimming the number plate and binning the std cooper mirror for SPA formula one added 5mph to ours top end!

[cooperman]

If you need 85 bhp to do 100 mph, then you'll need 191.25 bhp to do 150 mph, since the aerodynamic drag increases as the square of the speed. To increase the speed by 1.5 times requires 2.25 times the power.
That's a simple calculation which could be marginally affected by some ground-effect factor or aerodynamic flow off the back of the vehicle which would only make the power requirement greater. Gearing also has an effect, not necessarily for the better as a really high output motor will require a low gear ratio to get off the line as the power band will be thin. You would almost certainly need a 6-speed box to keep the engine 'on the cam'. If the aerodynamic shape could be improved, and de-seaming knocks about 40 sq. ins. off the frontal area which helps just a small amount (compared to the actual frontal area) the required figure would go down slightly, but not a lot really.
A 191 bhp 'A-Series' is something I would love to see. It's a complicated area and not as straightforward as some like to think. Power to speed is not a straight line on the graph.

[jellison]

89 in ours with 3.44 (short S gearing) runs to 110 on clock - like Cooperman say though these low final drive make it able to pull the higher rev with poor aerodynamics.

My Chim has 400bhp and crap aero - need huge power can get it there fighting the aero forces!

[danwebster]

i've been 135mph in a mini weighing 570kilos with a real 185hp (you may recognise it as the green mini that thrashed the bike / vaux / honda engined mini's on the last extreme mini DVD) and thats some going in a mini.

I'm afraid I wouldn't beleive the 150mph claims until I saw it with my own eyes.

[jellison]

Been Maxed out in Stuart Wright's Bonker Blue Turbo Miglia Clone at Goodwood for last few years (bit ill in 06). 190something full miglia spec bar the nuts engine (Turbo and Integrale Intercooled). Big Slick. That was about the same 135bhp - AWESOME.

Edited by jellison on Tuesday 30th January 08:43

[cooperman]

danwebster said:

i've been 135mph in a mini weighing 570kilos with a real 185hp (you may recognise it as the green mini that thrashed the bike / vaux / honda engined mini's on the last extreme mini DVD) and thats some going in a mini.

I'm afraid I wouldn't beleive the 150mph claims until I saw it with my own eyes.

Mathematically that would seem about right - 135 mph/185 bhp.
It's not the 150 mph I would not believe, it's the 191 bhp to get it there I doubt somewhat.
Just how could you get that power from an 'A-Series' and still have sufficient flexibility to cope with the range of speeds required in each gear, even with a 5 speed box? I mean, surely the power band would be so narrow as to be almost unusable with almost 200 bhp from, say, 1400 cc with a rev limit of c.8000 rpm.

[fwdracer]

cooperman said:

danwebster said:

i've been 135mph in a mini weighing 570kilos with a real 185hp (you may recognise it as the green mini that thrashed the bike / vaux / honda engined mini's on the last extreme mini DVD) and thats some going in a mini.

I'm afraid I wouldn't beleive the 150mph claims until I saw it with my own eyes.

Mathematically that would seem about right - 135 mph/185 bhp.
It's not the 150 mph I would not believe, it's the 191 bhp to get it there I doubt somewhat.
Just how could you get that power from an 'A-Series' and still have sufficient flexibility to cope with the range of speeds required in each gear, even with a 5 speed box? I mean, surely the power band would be so narrow as to be almost unusable with almost 200 bhp from, say, 1400 cc with a rev limit of c.8000 rpm.

How?.....

200bhp with Forced Induction is possible. Try this as an example.... http://mini.lyons-it.co.uk/. Some of the Turbo charged 16v creations are throwing out extremely high specific outputs. Not sure on about Longevity.

I think the Comput-a-vision GpA Metro Turbo's from the mid 80's Sallon car championship were running very close to that. Engine rebuild after every race mind.

The first person to do 150mph in Mini (recorded with a calibrated Datron) can have a tenner off me. That'll pay for a new set of underpants.

[danwebster]

It was done with a KAD 16 valver running a 5.3 (4.9fd on 1.08drops) diff on a 6speed gearbox, redlining at 9200, pulling hard from 4000. Theres a reason they're expensive, they're fvcking awesome.